


Ladyhawke

by selahexanimo



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Animal Transformation, F/F, Fairy Tale Curses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-05
Updated: 2015-08-05
Packaged: 2018-04-13 01:48:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4503129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/selahexanimo/pseuds/selahexanimo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Suyin stands vigil, seeking the lover she lost to a curse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ladyhawke

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Day #2 of Avatar Femslash Week. Theme: night.

It has been a year since Kuvira vanished from Zaofu – and still, Suyin waits for her, night after night.

She stands on her balcony, watching the sun slide into the mountains. Her eyes follow the slender, winged shapes that appear on the horizon, waiting for them to turn into buzzard wasps or wayfaring spirits. Everything, that is, but the one woman she seeks.

But one evening, long after she has begun to despair, she spots a hawk cutting an unwavering path toward her. She commands herself not to hope. Hope grips her, anyway.

The hawk drops toward the balcony, a blur of dusk-dark wings one moment, a young woman the next. She lands, and rises with a lurch. Suyin’s throat knots. She pulls Kuvira into an embrace, kneading her too sharp shoulder blades, the line of her spine; she draws back only far enough to cover Kuvira’s face in kisses.

“Are you going to keep me naked out here all night?” Kuvira laughs, and so Suyin drags her inside. Preparing for Kuvira’s return has become Suyin’s nightly ritual: the heated bathwater, the deep green robe, the slippers. She combs the tangles from Kuvira’s wet hair while the younger woman scrubs herself clean.

Suyin fears to ask, but in the end, she cannot help it. “Tell me you’ve found a way to break the curse,” she says. “Tell me that’s why you’ve been gone so long.”

Kuvira turns, hair slipping from Suyin’s hands. She grasps Suyin’s elbows and leans in to kiss the side of her mouth. “I’ll tell you in a bit,” she says.

Suyin drops the comb and wraps her arms around Kuvira’s neck. “Let me go tell Baatar and the children,” she says. “They’ve been so worried about you; they’ll want to know you’re home.”

“Later,” says Kuvira, and kisses her again. “I’ll see them later.”

She walks Suyin backward, hands on Suyin’s waist, nudging her mouth open. “I’ve missed you,” she breathes. “Spirits, I’m sick with it, missing you.”

“But you’re home now,” Suyin says.

Kuvira pauses. “Yes.”

That single word lights Suyin up; she smiles against Kuvira’s lips, and dares to hope. It has been a year. Surely, in that time, Kuvira will have found what she is looking for, having sworn that she would not come back until she had. Surely, she has found a way to break the curse upon her and come home forever.

But when Suyin wakes the next morning, there are feathers in the bed. Kuvira is gone, so long that her pillow has gone cold.

Suyin’s husband comes up, hours later, with a pot of tea. She shows him the fistful of feathers; he holds her while she sobs.

“She’ll be back,” he murmurs, against her neck. “She always is.”

“I can’t take another year,” Suyin cries. “I can’t–”

“You did once.” He pulls back and cups her face in his warm hands. “And you can again.”

Suyin goes out onto the balcony, that evening. She leans against the balustrade, and she waits.


End file.
